


Dive

by percyspandapillowpet



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Guess Who's Back, M/M, back again, it's been 84 years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 13:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16787758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/percyspandapillowpet/pseuds/percyspandapillowpet
Summary: Not much could make Nico more happy than the fact that his boyfriend was staying at camp for Christmas Eve, and nothing made him more upset than the thought of Will leaving early the next morning.But at the forefront of his thoughts that morning, as he lay awake in bed with a still-sound-asleep Will curled up by his side, was the burning question of how were they going to break the news?(Fits in after Summer Nights, but also works as a standalone. I don't want to call it a sequel. I don't care how you want to read it. You do you.)





	Dive

Not much could make Nico more happy than the fact that his boyfriend was staying at camp for Christmas Eve, and nothing made him more upset than the thought of Will leaving early the next morning.

But at the forefront of his thoughts that morning, as he lay awake in bed with a still-sound-asleep Will curled up by his side, was the burning question of _how were they going to break the news?_

After what had apparently been much eager anticipation and frustration from both parties, they had finally got it together and kissed for the first time the previous night. It had been amazing, of course. Nico wouldn’t trade it for the world. But how the hell was he supposed to tell his friends?

Some of them (Reyna and Hazel) he knew would be pretty calm and collected about it and make the conversation quite simple. Others (Annabeth and Piper) would probably somehow find out before he even got a chance to approach them, so should he even bother approaching them at all? And, of course, some (Jason and Percy) were likely to freak out so extravagantly that the entire camp would know within five minutes.

So what was his plan? Should he wait for Will to wake up? Should he get it over with before then? Should he just sit here and let the dread consume him alive, spending his dying moments hugging his warm, cuddly boyfriend? Yes, that sounded good.

A few moments after making his decision, however, Will rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. For about ten seconds, he just stared up at Nico with a sleepy smile.

“Hey,” he finally said.

“Hey,” Nico agreed.

“I was scared for a second that it was all a dream.”

“It was.”

That got him a light punch to the arm. “You’re mean.” Then he unfolded his fist and let his hand rest on Nico’s shoulder. “So,” he said, more softly. “This is a thing, now.”

Nico swallowed. “Yeah. A thing.”

Will smiled. “A good thing.”

“Very,” he responded. “So…do we have to tell everybody about this thing?”

Will groaned and buried his face into his pillow. “Ugh. Probably.”

“That’s annoying.”

“It really is. I kind of just want to stay here forever.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Nico replied.

“On the other hand…” Will picked his head up again and brought a hand to his own stomach. “I am kind of hungry.”

He considered food for a moment. It didn’t need to invade his thoughts for very long to make his stomach suddenly feel empty.

“Yeah,” he said. “We should go eat. But…” He worked his way up to a sitting position. “Let’s wait until after breakfast to start telling people, okay?”

“Okay,” Will agreed. “After breakfast.”

Nico then forced himself to stand and abandon his cocoon of warmth and happiness. As he was slipping on his sneakers (he was still in his clothes from the previous night), he realized that, behind him, Will had not moved a muscle.

He turned around, and sure enough, he was still lying there, just staring with a stupid grin on his stupid face.

“Hey, stupid,” he said. “If you want food, you have to walk for it.”

“I know,” Will replied, a yawn slurring his words. “I’ll get up. Just one minute.”

“How about one second?”

“Mean. Why are you always so mean to me?”

He sat up, pushed the covers away, and rose to his feet.

Nico smiled at him once he came back up from tying his shoes. “Good. See? How hard was that?”

“Extremely,” Will replied. “Now I’m just even more hungry.”

“All the more reason to go get it,” Nico retorted. “Let’s go.”

As he headed for the door, Will had to grab his hand, of course. Not that he minded.

Until he actually opened it, that is, and realized just what it meant.

Holding hands inside a closed room was one thing. Holding hands out in public where they don’t know anybody was another. But holding hands while walking through the most heavily trafficked area of the camp where they knew _everyone?_

Suddenly Nico’s palm felt extra sweaty, and it wasn’t just because Will’s was warm.

He stopped just as his free hand landed on the doorknob. “Are you sure about this?”

He lifted their joint hands. “This?”

“Yeah. I mean…isn’t it kind of…going to give it away? You know, before we tell them?”  
Will nodded. “Right. I see what you mean.” Then he let go, raising his arms in surrender. “Okay. All set now. Let’s go.”

“Right,” Nico agreed. He turned the doorknob.

He had seen those pictures of celebrities in tabloid magazines at the grocery store before—the ones where they’re wearing hoods and sunglasses while the paparazzi surround their houses—but he had never really pondered what that might have felt like until that instant.

He couldn’t even tell who was there at first; it was just a crowd of faces blurred by the sudden blinding brightness of the sun. It wasn’t until after his eyes adjusted that he saw each of their faces.

Percy’s jaw was practically on the ground; Jason was grinning like a psychopath. Annabeth had an awful smirk; Piper was laughing hysterically. Lou Ellen and Cecil were there, too, both doubled over, Lou wiping tears away. Austin and Kayla were off to the side from the rest of the group—Kayla looked like she’d just heard the greatest joke in the world; Austin had his arms crossed and was shaking his head.

“Oh,” Will said beside him. His voice still held a sleepy stupor. “Hey, guys.”

Nico folded his arms and didn’t budge from the top step of his cabin porch. “What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know,” Jason replied, his eyes twinkling. “Why don’t you tell us?”

Nico had never had more of an urge to slap his stupid smile away.

“No,” was all he said. “Come on, Will, let’s go get breakfast.” He made to move down the steps and shoulder his way through the crowd—he’d knock each one of them over if he had to—but then he felt a steady grip on his shoulder.

“Nico, wait. We owe them an explanation.”

“We don’t owe them anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Will just stared at him pointedly. Nico knew he was expecting to sigh, surrender, and get it over with, but he turned away, back toward the hateful traitors he called friends.

“Where are Reyna and Hazel?” he asked.

“Well,” Austin piped up, “ _Hazel_ slept in the infirmary last night, and she refused to tell us why. I didn’t think much of it until Jason approached me this morning.”

“Reyna and Hazel and the rest of the Camp Jupiter kids are getting ready to leave,” Jason explained. “Reyna came up to me and asked where Nico was so she could say goodbye. Then I realized he hadn’t been at breakfast—in fact, I hadn’t seen him all morning.”

“And Will wasn’t at breakfast, either,” Kayla cut in. “So when I overheard Jason and Austin talking, I knew something was up.”

“She found me and Cecil first,” Lou Ellen chimed. “And when we realized we also hadn’t seen Will around, we found everyone else as fast as we could and ran over here.”

“It was the next logical step,” Annabeth added.

“I just didn’t think you’d be _right!_ ” Percy spluttered.

“I’m always right,” she replied. “Anyway, Nico, Will, now that we’ve explained our side, it’s your turn. Spill.”

Nico assessed his options. He could try a polite _no, thank you,_ a slightly-less-polite _no fucking way,_ simply turn around and lock himself in his cabin for eternity, or…

Or he could face his friends and tell them the truth.

He turned to Will. His boyfriend.

(Saying that—even in his head—still didn’t feel quite right. They hadn’t really confirmed it aloud yet, exactly. But he knew that both of them agreed it was true.)

Will was still smiling like he had just woken up. Like a baby duck who immediately began following the first animal it saw, he seemed to stay firmly attached to whatever mood he experienced upon first opening his eyes. Nico hoped, in that moment, that Will would always be this happy, that he would always be the first thing he saw each morning.

Will extended his hand, slightly enough that only he would notice. It wasn’t a life preserver, just the bounce he needed to jump off the diving board.

He dove into the deep end.

The chorus of _oohs_ and _awws_ was annoying, but honestly, he wouldn’t trade it for the world. He’d tolerate it if it meant he got to keep swimming.

“Breakfast?” Will asked over the buzz of the crowd.

He nodded. “Let’s ditch these losers.”

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo it's been a hot minute.
> 
> Thanks to anyone who read this, especially to those of you who probably thought I disappeared off the face of this planet after finishing Summer Nights (I wasn't completely dead on here. I was commenting on a lot of stuff...). To be honest, I needed that break from writing fanfiction. I was at a complete loss for ideas after SN because I pretty much incorporated every idea I ever had for those characters into that fic, and I also felt like nothing would ever compare (nothing ever will, but that's okay! I'm going to keep writing one-shots like I used to because I love it). 
> 
> That break from February until now gave me the chance to write 50,000 words of a new novel (from March to July) and then to turn Summer Nights into a novel (from July through September, though this was an idea I had long before then). What that means is that I basically took the basic plot and a lot of the exact scenes and wordings I used in the fic, but made up completely new characters (obviously with somewhat similar personalities) and a brand-new setting. I don't what I'm going to do with it, because now I have two finished (and one unfinished) novels sitting around. We'll see what the future brings.
> 
> Thanks for hanging in there, though, if you thought you weren't going to see anything from me ever again. It might be a while until my next update again, but if you follow me on twitter @percyspillowpet (I only use that for fic updates), I promise to let you all know what's up ;)
> 
> I hope all of you have a lovely holiday season! and thanks for reading all of this lol


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